Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Checkmate For Hell - Part 15: Creation/Heaven Fruits

This is part of an ongoing series of blog posts, meant to be read in order. In the first
post, I introduced the concept of Universalism, and introduced the concept
that I would be defending my position through a series of "chess
moves". I mentioned that I believe I have checkmate in 2 moves, but
because a lot of questions would be left, I would use a series of further moves
to keep the king in checkmate while I systematically removed the rest of the
pieces from the board. I would highly suggest you read the previous parts
of this series before reading this one:

CONCLUSION
So now we have arrived at the final section of this exploration – now we test the fruits.

Let’s start by analyzing the fruits of our attitudes toward Creation if we believe in the Six Line Narrative.

Creation/Heaven Fruits
Let’s start by asking: what are the fruits of the attitude towards creation that says that it is inferior and evil?David C. Barker of the University of
Pittsburgh and David H. Bearce of the University of Colorado put together some
research, presented in this article, demonstrating that belief in the biblical end-times was
a motivating factor behind resistance to curbing climate change.A couple quotes from the article to consider:

[T]he fact that such an overwhelming percentage of Republican citizens profess a belief in the Second Coming (76 percent in 2006, according to our sample) suggests that governmental attempts to curb greenhouse emissions would encounter stiff resistance even if every Democrat in the country wanted to curb them,” Barker and Bearce wrote in their study, which will be published in the June issue of Political Science Quarterly.

Then, later on in the same article:

[I]t stands to reason that most nonbelievers would support preserving the Earth for future generations, but that end-times believers would rationally perceive such efforts to be ultimately futile, and hence ill-advised,” Barker and Bearce explained.

Has human activity been a significant factor in changing mean global temperatures?

The results of this survey found that about 90 percent of the scientists
surveyed agreed with the first question, and about 82 percent with the
second.Furthermore, a subsample of the
survey of climate scientists showed that about 97 percent agreed that the
temperature has risen for the first question, and about 98 percent answered yes
to question number 2.Meanwhile, only
“fifty-two percent of Americans think most climate scientists agree that the
Earth has been warming in recent years, and 47% think climate scientists agree
(i.e., that there is a scientific consensus) that human activities are a major
cause of that warming, according to recent polling.” (Quoted from the same study.)Leading Evangelical theologian Mark Driscoll said at Catalyst (a major Christian conference) in 2013:

I know who made the environment and he’s coming back and going to burn
it all up. So yes, I drive an SUV.

Basically, those who believe that God is going to throw away creation in the end don’t believe they need to be good stewards of that creation, and don’t feel any need to live responsibly.Their rapture theology is an excuse for apathy.

Conversely, if you believe God actually cares about His creation, and that it is precious because it declares the glory of God, then you will be motivated to live more responsibly towards the environment.The fruits of rapture theology are apathy and destruction of creation, but the fruits of a proper theology towards creation are living responsibly and caring for God’s wonderful creation that He has
given us to enjoy.

Note, though, something else of great significance about the whole Christian theology of resurrection, ascension, second coming, and hope. This theology was born out of confrontation with the political authorities, out of the conviction that Jesus was already the true Lord of the world who would one day be manifested as such. The rapture theology avoids this confrontation because it suggests that Christians will miraculously be removed from this wicked world. Perhaps that is why such theology is often Gnostic in its tendency towards a private dualistic spirituality and towards a political laissez-faire quietism. And perhaps that is partly why such theology with its dreams of Armageddon, has quietly supported the political status quo in a way that Paul would never have done.

This quote brings up an interesting point about the New Testament – there was a lot of political language throughout!For example, in Colossians 1:15-20, Paul uses political
language that is lost on us today:

15 Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation,16 for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth.He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see—such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him.17 He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together.18 Christ is also the head of the church, which is his body.He is the beginning, supreme over all who rise from the dead. So he is first in everything.19 For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ,20 and through him God reconciled everything to himself.He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.

This was a very politically subversive message – in Rome at the time,
Christianity was a very small percentage of the population. But Paul is
turning things around in verses 16 and 17 by saying that, because – through
Christ – God created everything, Rome is just a small piece of God’s
kingdom. Then Paul says that Christ is the “head of the assembly” (note:
many translations use the word “body”) in verse 18 – this was political
language. In Roman, their legislative branch was known as the “assembly” and Caesar was the head of it. This language is all too often lost on us today, and it is to our detriment as we seem to believe church is all about singing songs and
praying. Which I’m not knocking – those things are beneficial. But that’s not the end goal – the goal is to be a citizen of God’s kingdom, and to act as if we have responsibilities to inaugurate His kingdom on earth.
You see, because we believe in “heaven escapism” we push passages like Isaiah 2:4 into the future and think we have no
responsibility for it:

The Lord will mediate between nations and will settle international disputes.They will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.Nation will no longer fight against nation, nor train for war anymore.

Do you understand the imagery of hammering swords into plowshares and
spears into pruning hooks? What that means, as citizens of the Kingdom of
Heaven, is that we are supposed to turn away from instruments of destruction
and violence and turn towards instruments of cultivation, and we ought to
encourage everyone in the world to do the same, since “the earth is the Lord’s,
and everything in it.” (Psalm 24:1 and I Corinthians 10:26)So, in
the world of “heaven escapism”, prophesies are read and there is no purpose for
them except to give us a nice picture of what the future will look like in
heaven.But within the story of God
establishing His kingdom on earth through Jesus, we read prophesies of that kingdom
and wonder if perhaps we should be working towards achieving them as goals for
the establishment of God’s kingdom.In
the world of “heaven escapism”, the only role of the church is to sing pretty
spiritual songs and preach sermons every Sunday, and that’s it.But within the story of God establishing His kingdom on earth through Jesus, the role of the church is to be a body of
believers who go forth into the world and do work for the kingdom – the fruit
of this story is holy activism based on compassion.

Time for another break. When we continue, I will explore the fruits of believing in eternal conscious torment.Next: Hell Fruits

About Me

I am married to a gorgeous woman
who makes life beautiful. I have three children who are the loves of my
life. I am learning more about love every day. My family and I moved
to Chattanooga in December 2010 and are loving it! We've been attending
The Vineyard and are feeling like we are more a part of that church
than we have of any church in a long time. I am a music snob which
means that I hate any radio station that plays just hits resulting in
the same dozen or so songs repeated every hour. I reject the politics of persecution and oppose absolutist, demonizing rhetoric. I am a geek/nerd.

1 Corinthians 13:1-3 NLT

If
I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love
others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had
the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and
possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move
mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. If I gave
everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast
about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.